Compel Nigerian Government To Unconditionally Release IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu – US Lawmaker Tells President Biden The member representing ...
Compel Nigerian Government To Unconditionally Release IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu – US Lawmaker Tells President Biden
The member representing District 139 in the Texas House of Representatives, Jarvis Johnson, has asked the President Joe Biden-led United States government to compel the Nigerian government to immediately and unconditionally release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu from detention.
Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021 when he was abducted in Kenya by Nigerian govt according to his lawyer and returned to Nigeria for continued trial on treasonable felony and terrorism charges pressed against him by the Nigerian government.
However, on October 13 this year, a three-man panel of Court of Appeal judges in their unanimous decision ruled that Kanu’s rendition from Kenya was illegal. The appeal court ruled that the arrest, abduction and subsequent arraignment of Kanu before a Federal High Court violated international convention on terrorism and, thus, robbed any court of law in Nigeria necessary jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The court also discharged and acquitted Kanu of all the charges and ordered for his immediate and unconditional release from detention.
But the Nigerian government through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, insisted that the IPOB leader cannot be released and thereafter, appealed the judgment of the Appellate court.
The Nigerian government’s decision to keep Kanu in detention after the Appeal Court judgment has since generated widespread mixed reactions, particularly, condemnations from Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
In a statement on Tuesday, Jarvis Johnson and a group known as the Biafra Advocacy Group (B.A.G) called on the U.S. government to facilitate Kanu's unconditional release and to compel the Nigerian government to grant Kanu his request of free and fair referendum as recognised by international laws.
The statement read, “TX State Representative Jarvis Johnson (Democrat-Houston) and The Biafran Advocacy Group (B.A.G), a human rights organisation based in the U.S., urge the U.S. government to join other governments and organizations to compel the Nigerian government to immediately release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leading freedom and human rights advocate for The lgbos and other oppressed Nigerian minority tribes.
“Mazi Nmandi Kanu, a British Citizen, was kidnapped in Kenya on June 19, 2021. After a week of torture in Kenya, Kanu was forcibly taken to Nigeria. Kanu was charged to court by the Nigerian government on alleged offenses committed in the United Kingdom.
“After a series of spurious amendments of its Charging Instruments, a series of continuous adjournments of court dates, and a foiled plot to conduct a secret and quasi-military trial of Kanu by the Nigerian government, he has finally had his days in the Nigerian Courts.
“The Abia State High Court judgment of January 19, 2022, exonerated Kanu from jumping bail and ordering the Nigerian government to apologize and pay him compensation for the military invasion of his ancestral home.
“On October 13, 2022, the Nigerian Court of Appeals in Abuja, Nigeria, unanimously held Nigeria's government detention of Kanu as illegal. The Court found Kanu was kidnapped from Kenya and unlawfully detained in Nigeria.
“The Federal High Court (Umuahia) Judgment of October 26, 2022 ruled Kanu was extraordinarily renditioned and ordered compensation for him.
“Kanu was denied basic human rights and independent specialist medical care for an ongoing heart ailment.
“Rather than comply with these legal decisions and mandates, the Nigerian government has refused to release Kanu and has resorted to delaying tactics to alter the course of justice.
“Kanu's only alleged offense is his persistent request for the Nigerian Government with the assistance of the International community to conduct a free and fair Referendum as a peaceful means of resolving the national question in Nigeria.
“This is consistent with international law and practice. It was via a Referendum that the 30 years war in Sudan was resolved; the U.K. discontinued its membership in the European Union (Brexit) was resolved, and the issue of Scotland as part of the U.K. was resolved.
“TX State Representative Jarvis Johnson calls on the United States government and other agencies to facilitate, as ordered by the Nigeria Court of Appeals, and the UN Working Group Opinion Number A/HRCWGAD/2022/25 the immediate and unconditional release of Kanu from his unlawful detention in Nigeria.”
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